OK, so fall is here

Well, I can't hang out in the back yard in a t-shirt any more. Actually, you can't hang out in the back yard at all unless you've got on a rain coat. It's been raining for the last 4 out of 5 days, or is it 9 out of the last 10. I ran out and took these pics on the one day it didn't rain. Speaking of rain, this isn't that life-bringing spring type rain, when everything smells and feels fresh and new. No! This is that life sucking kind of rain that occurs every fall when the temps hover in the 50's and the sun goes away. I yearn to work out in the yard, but in this weather, I'd be a parody of a Monty Python character working in an anarco-syndicalist commune. The rain seems to permeate every thing. You can't get warm. I watch the grass grow by the feet and wonder if it will ever end. Well, it will when it starts to snow.

Hosta

Some of the hosta has packed it up for the season, but there are still plenty that will hang on till the first hard frost.

I could lick the plate

Pat and I went to Michael Symon's Lola for lunch today. What a treat. You might think of Lola's as The House of All Things Pork. Rare is the restaurant where I want to lick the plate. This is one of them. The other happens to be Symon's other Cleveland restaurant, Lolita. Service was supurb.

Still holding on

The ligularia's days are numbered, but even at the end of its' cycle, the flower still looks cool. We're going to let them self seed wherever they are in the yard. The plan is to have a large patch of ligularia in the center area of the back yard. That way, there is less grass to mow. the anemomes rebounded beyond our expectations after transplanting them. They stay put from now on. The daisy and day lily are the last ones for this year. I mowed the day lilies down to neaten up the front yard. The daisies are getting moved when we attack the front yard in a couple of weeks.

It's still summer in our back yard

I know the nights are getting colder, and some of our plants are shutting down for the season. The leaves are changing color and they're falling on the ground, but why hurry fall? You know what follows fall, don't you? That's right 8 or 10 feet of snow. So, let's enjoy and stretch summer out for as long as we can.

Just like like camp

Only better!

yard work

We knew the back yard had a ton of potential for gardening when we moved in, if we could only figure out how to conquer the mud. Well 28 tons of gravel later, mud's not a problem. Daily walks around the back yard took care of the occasional weeds. Bird seed that took root was something that comes with feeding the birds and animals in the yard. Turf grass was the real enemy, insidious turf grass. Every year the paths got a little narrower till Pat finally mentioned that the yard was looking a little overgrown. There's a fine line between the yard looking full and kinda overgrown. Well, we probably crossed that line back in May, so yard work was in order. Using knee pads, hand shovels and picks, Pat and I re-edged the paths. I knew the grass had crept into the paths, but I guess I was in denial over just how bad it was. We found all the original edges and made the paths a foot wider. The job only took 12 man hours.